Last week of training

Hellllllllllllllllllllo!!! Or as they say here in Russia, "zdravstvuite"! It's my last week of training, and I'm so excited (but it's not like this changes anything about my life.....). I've decided that Sister Galli and I are probably staying together next transfer and according to some rumors floating around, our zone in Ufa will stay the same next transfer. Also, we're moving apartments this week, so that will be really exciting (NOT). Even though I may not being transferred, I still have to pack up all my stuff (as well as everything that is owned by the mission that is in the apartment) and move via taxi to the new place (apartment still hasn't been found yet.....hmm). So, depending on where we end up living and how far away it is from internet, expect my weekly emails to maybe come at a different time next week. I don't know, sorry!

Also, something that's exciting, our zone got special permission to go see the ballet "Swan Lake" next week! We had to use our own money (about $20), and I'm super excited! A realy Russian ballet!!! I've only seen these on Netflix before, and I'm sure real life will be much more exciting :)

But anyway, it's been another typically exciting week here in Ufa. It's been raining A LOT and the weather reports have said it's been in the negative numbers (Celsius)  and only heading colder. It snows every once in a while. Everyone wears hats (berets, ski hats, etc.), big coats, scarves, and boots all day every day. There's nothing more unpleasant than being in the same wet stuff all day long.

Our investigators are great. We went bowling with an investigator and her friend last Monday. And then randomly in the middle of our game (which they were an hour late for...), she turned to me and said she had to go meet up with a guy. So she leaves and comes back 20 min later. Apparently she has a boyfriend! He was interesting. They both came to the Open House at the church on Saturday (2 hours later than she had said) and the ward missionaries talked to him for a while. He had some decent questions, and because of that, he kind of grew on me. But he's still kind of....not deserving of her. She's awesome! She's been trying to quit coffee and because she's really been struggling with it, we found out the root of the problem is that she hasn't really gotten a clear answer yet. She reads everything we tell her, but as far as getting a testimony for herself, she's just been trusting in us and what we tell her. We're encouraging her to stand on her own two feet and find out if it's true or not. At the open house, I think she really learned a lot. There are big display boards about temples, Joseph Smith, Baptism, the Book of Mormon, etc. and we were able to talk with her and have another Elder come and talk with her too about the importance of prayer and finding an answer for herself. I really think it gave her a lot to think about. 

Another investigator told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. We had what started out to be a great lesson with her, but as it progressed things got worse. She asked a really good question about why Jesus has to come again. I answered and said it's for the last judgment. We pulled out the diagram of the plan of salvation to remind her. The member present started to go REALLY off topic at this point and started to talk about the Millennium and Satan being bound and basically stuff that had NOTHING to do with the lesson at hand. I was on splits with another sister because Sister Galli and I had two appointments at the same time. We both didn't know what to do to handle the situation. If we interrupted in the wrong way, it would have looked like we're trying to hide something. Well, the Spirit was completely gone during the whole lesson. Whereas the investigator had been glowing at the beginning, telling us that she knew the Book of Mormon is true and that there's a lot to be learned from reading between the lines, by the end, she looked absolutely overwhelmed and really confused. Update: she literally just texted me and said she hopes our day is going well. Looks like we didn't mess up too bad!

Her friend is kind of struggling with the Book of Mormon. She also reads everything we give her, but she's suuuuuuper intellectual and so thinks about things wayyyyy too much and over complicates everything she reads. Our plan with this is to try to read a chapter with both of them together and discuss it. Reading the scriptures out loud with investigators always brings the spirit, and hopefully if we're reading collectively, she won't have time to try to literarally analyze everything-- which isn't bad, of course! She's just trying to get a testimony and get an answer to her prayers and it's hard to do that if you're analyzing the writing instead of thinking about the meaning of the words. 

The struggle with both of these investigators is that they can't come to church because their families live way outside the city, and they go home on weekends to see them. It's going to be kind of hard to get them to church (and it's already hard). What are we supposed to say, "don't see your families anymore?" Ughhhhhhh.

But......a miracle happened this week: one of the companionships of Elders was at the church last Monday and they saw two girls (about 22 years old) peering in the windows of the church and walking around the outside. So, like any good missionaries would do, as the girls were walking away, the Elders literally chased them down outside and dragged them inside for a tour of the INSIDE of the church. Well, turns out only one of them is sincerely interested in the church, so the Elders gave her a Book of Mormon. She lives in our area (keep in mind, our area is HUGE) which is about 45 min. outside the city, so she's now our investigator! She came to church yesterday, and she really liked it! Our grand total of investigators at church was four, which is a record for me and Sister Galli.

I played a musical number in church yesterday. I played the flute, another sister sang, a member (11 yrs old) played the violin, and another girl (10 years old) played the piano. We did "I Love to See the Temple," and it was AMAZING. There is a lot of musical talent growing up in this branch, for sure! Our other investigators were just absolutely so pleased to hear the musical number and couldn't stop talking about it. They're doctors which means they're excessively busy, and we've only been able to have a handful of meetings with them. They come to church when they can, but it's kind of hard to forge a relationship with them when we never meet or they never show up to meetings. I think the music really helped though because apparently one of them is (or used to be?) a professional dancer, so now she's just so excited that I love music. Also, one of the Elders' investigators plays the guitar and he offered to teach me if I can teach him to play the piano! There's a branch talent show this week, and we'll see what amazing thing I can come up with for it. 

We've been using the Book of Mormon with a less active in the branch who has been a member a little over a year and doesn't feel like she has friends in the branch. She's constantly sick, so we've been able to share lots of spiritual thoughts with her. It's so great to see that as we've been meeting with her, the light in her eyes has grown and grown. We read the Book of Mormon with her and share verses from it. She finally came to the conclusion last time that it's probably Satan that doesn't want her to go to church which is why she always gets sick before church. We definitely agreed with her on that and challenged her to come to church. She came yesterday, and she was just glowing! She brought her little boy and a non-member friend and everyone looked so happy to see her. Our last meeting she had asked us if we "made" her visiting teachers come over and visit her, and she seemed actually shocked that we had nothing to do with it! I really hope that she continues to come to church, and we will definitely keep working with her. 

The third hour of church was a little strange yesterday but in the end, Sister Galli and I were in a room with all the investigators who had come to church, and together we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them. The Spirit was definitely in the room, and after the movie, Sister Galli and I stood up and bore our testimonies on the life of Christ and how we can grow closer to him. I talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about how each of us needs to have faith to repent. It felt really good to testify about this, knowing that I've been able to use His Atonement in my own life. I talked about how we need to use the Atonement because Jesus died for us so that we can become perfect through him. One of the investigators was in the front row just nodding to everything I said, and I felt so happy inside. I love being a missionary. It's really hard sometimes, but it's always worth it when I know that someone is feeling the spirit. 

I love Russia. It definitely feels like home to me. It's surreal thinking about how life is just going right along back in Provo, UT without me there. In just two months, we'll be Skyping!!!

Also, fun fact: I'm pretty sure the french "de la" turned into the Russian "для". They both sound exactly the same (basically) and mean roughly the same thing. It's funny to find all kind of crazy almost French words here.

Have a great, fantastic, awesome week! I love you all! I pray for you all the time. 

Love,
Cectpa Brown

Hey!

I can officially say that in Russia, it was snowing like cray-cray (crazy) this morning. Oh.my.gosh. I have never heard the wind howl compared with what I heard. I turned to Sister Galli and said "I don't want to go anywhere today." she then said, "hm...what do we even have planned?" opened her planner and said, "oh my gosh! It's P-day, and you don't want to do INTERNET?!!?" 

Ha. Well, needless to say, I am now here. I am also the proud owner of the fluffiest, poofiest coat in the entire world (maybe not the entirrrrre world). I wore it today and even though I looked like a well-dressed homeless person (gigantic hat, glasses, huuuuuuge coat, gigantic side bag), I at least knew that I looked like a very warm, well-dressed homeless person. 

Speaking of my sense of style (of which I have a lot!), at conference yesterday I was wearing my Scottish kilt skirt, a pink t-shirt, a pink flower scarf, and a grey sweater. I thought it looked fine, but the sisters in the other area came up to me and said something like, "we don't know how you do it but you wear stuff that we never thought would 'go' together and it looks so good!!!" Apparently they talk about my sense of style a lot? Ha. Either way, apparently I'm an eccentric dresser-- thought I toned that down for the mission though-- but I'm flattered! :)

This week was interesting. I'm not going to lie, but I was kind of in a downer mood Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's honestly just probably my personality combined with the weather here. It has rained every.single.day. and lemme tell you, my white coat looks a little muddy.It's also gotten considerably darker here too, but that's just part of Russia! I started getting really excited towards the end of the week because we had Zone Conference on Friday with just our zone (not combined with other zones as is the usual). The President and his wife and the Assistants came, and it was a great day! It was a little stressful because the night before we were told to be at the church at 9 am on Friday but then on Friday morning at 7:15 am, we were texted by our zone leader and told me needed to be at the church in an hour. Talk about stressful since Sister Galli had just taken a shower (luckily, I had taken one the night before) and it takes an hour to get to the church. Yay hectic mornings!

Zone conference was great and President really emphasized using Preach My Gospel in everything we do, including language study. He wants us to memorize every "medium lesson plan" at the end of the lessons and also every single follow up question in Russian as well as any other "zinger sentences".  He said the speaking profiency for Russian has steadily gone downhill since they got rid of memorized lessons, and he promised us that if we memorize these things and get all of our vocab out of Preach My Gospel, we will be incredible missionaries. Russian is so hard that memorizing these sentence patterns and case patterns will definitely be beneficial. We have the best mission president. He's a genius. In his setting apart blessing, he was promised that any promise that he gives us, the Lord will fulfill, so he's really careful in giving out promises. His promise to us was: "

By so doing, you will become master finders and teachers who consistently teach powerfully with the Spirit. You will receive clear spiritual guidance every day. You will feel overwhelming love for your mission and each other and for the Russian people. You will lose your appetite for anything that might distract you from your purpose. "

Also in zone conference we talked about what it means to be absolutely consecrated and not just obedient. To be consecrated means: there are no loopholes in the rules, the rules are a part of who you are, you are dedicated, there is total surrender of yourself, and your Divine Nature has triumphed over your natural man.

"Consecration is the only surrender that is an actual victory." --Neal A. Maxwell

Anyway, life here is dandy. I LOVED general conference. Every talk was amazing. Inbetween sessions on Saturday and Sunday we had a lunch with ward members. On Saturday we made American pancakes (an Elder had maple leaf extract, so we made syrup-- the members went nuts over it!! they started putting it in their tea and just plain drinking it....I'm not kidding.) Sunday we made chili and scones with honey-butter. The Russians also went nuts over the honey-butter. They'd never had that before either, but they loved it!! 

I loved Elder Cook's talk on Bondage and also....well, everything. It was all great. These were the main subjects that I noticed were hit upon: 
tithing
Don't set your heart upon the things of the world.
CHASTITY
Missionary Work is a Member's Work too
God will ALWAYS love you and will always take you back.
ATONEMENT
Keeping covenants and how important that is
Live what we believe.
Conversion-- what is true conversion and why it's important
TAKING ON THE SAVIOR'S YOKE
Women/Family Proclamation/Gender Roles
The Apostle Paul
Search the scriptures diligently. 
Good, better, best.
Legalized sin is still sin.
I know that's a lot but every talk in the 12 hours of conference fit into that somehow. Oh! Also, I saw Amy McGreevy singing in the sister missionary choir at the Relief Society Session. I'm so proud of her!

Being an obedient missionary has been great because as Sister Galli and I have prayerfully set goals, we always have opportunities for those goals to be fulfilled (such as a street-lesson), so that even if we start teaching a street-lesson and the person rejects us, we know that we still planned for that opportunity but ultimately it was that person's free agency that kept our goal from being completed. That did happen to us this week when we were street-teaching people. We planned for one street-lesson, but hadn't had any success. There was one man that was willing to start talking with us, but he wasn't willing to meet with us so we parted ways. Even though we didn't fulfill our goal that day of street-lessons, we superseded our goal of invitations given out, and I know that the Lord blessed us. 

Sister Galli and I always try to teach from the Book of Mormon in every lesson we give, whether it's an investigator, a less-active, or an active-member (and of course, a street-lesson). We're hoping that as we ask the questions "What do we want them to feel?" and "What do we want them to do?" that we can continue to help bless people's lives through the Book of Mormon. I think as I continue to memorize killer lines from Preach My Gospel that I will be able to talk about the Book of Mormon much better and participate more in street lessons. 

Basically, I love Russia. I love it here. I'm so excited every day that I get to help build up Zion in this beautiful country. I know the church is true, and I really loved conference this year. Don't forget the messages you learned there. I really felt the Spirit as the apostles testified about the importance of women making time for their children. I know they're prophecying the future where we won't be able to "juggle three balls" anymore-- one of them is bound to drop.

I love you all! Have a great week in America. I dreamed I went skiing with the family last night, so tell Eric to have fun for me this season. :)

Love,
cecmpa Brown

Hello!

Well, once again I'm wondering to myself, "how is it p-day already?" It's nuts. I was thinking about ALL of you this last weekend enjoying conference...haha. Well, I'm just excited to watch it this upcoming weekend! I've heard some great things happened, so we'll see! It's steadily been getting colder and colder and darker and darker every day here. My cashmere-lined leather gloves  have definitely come in handy. Phew. I use dad's reusable handwarmers on the REALLY cold days when we're outside for a long time (Saturday morning soccer in negative weather anyone?) We've been wearing tights for a couple of weeks but no long underwear yet! I've heard from one of our investigators that it's supposed to be a "warm winter"....whatever that means for Russia! ha. 

What I've been reading this week: lots of things! If you haven't read the talk "the Fourth Missionary," you should probably read it. It's written by a mission president in 2002, and it's really good. I think it really can be applied to just normal people in terms of the plan of salvation instead of just missionaries. It's made me think about what kind of missionary and what kind of person I want to be. I've been studying up on the Attributes of Christ (Preach My Gospel, Chapter 6), and well---He was perfect! But this life is all about perfecting ourselves to become like Him. It's hard, but salvation was never meant to be easy. The way we respond to trials really shows what kind of person we are. Are you just going to give up and sulk? Or are we going to buckle down, suck up our pride, and do what needs to be done? It's all about the eternal perspective. I lose sight of that sometimes, but it's important to remember. :)

This was a fantastic week for our investigator. She came to church last week but was 2 hours late (missed sacrament meeting), but she was ON TIME for church yesterday (and by on time, I mean only 20 minutes late-- but for her that's realllllllly good). I just love her to death. She's an amazing woman who has had a really hard life. Our Sunday school lesson was law of chastity (always an interesting one), but she responded really well to it and didn't have too "feminist" of a stance, if you get my drift. Our lesson after church went well. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ (she had lots of Law of Chastity questions), and we talked about her upcoming baptism. She remembered it was for the 12th, and said she was working that day. So we successfully moved to the 26th. She's not very diligent at praying, but we send her scripture texts every day so that she reads. She said "I feel like I'm reading truth." It's really hard not to start clapping when people say things like that. Using the Book of Mormon as her primary source of learning has been really great because she's able to get the answers straight from the source instead of a pamphlet or something. She's a really smart lady, and I love her. She always tells me to stop cracking my knuckles, and I told her she reminds me of mom. She laughed and said she'll be my mom over here. If everything keeps going smoothly, she'll get baptized in just a few weeks!

Another investigator got better this week, and we were able to meet with her. She's really receptive, and really enjoys reading the Book of Mormon. Nothing super spectacular happened in her lesson, but both she and her friend came to English on Thursday and after (instead of having a lesson like Sister Galli and I planned) we ended up just talking about American pop culture. It was cool to kind of bond with them as friends though because sometimes they think we're a little strange ;) They've invited us to the movies SEVERAL times, to restaurants (twice) on Sunday, to a Halloween themed dance, among other things. And we always have to tell them no. It's kind of funny, but I do feel a little bad that we have a "serious" relationship sometimes, so it felt good to just talk about horror movies, Justin Bieber, and McDonald's like a bunch of girls. 

Setting goals is just great. Sister Galli and I are doing our best to do all we can to be the best missionaries we can be. Sometimes it's hard because I'm so tired all the time (the investigator told me that she felt really bad at our meeting last week because I just looked "absolutely exhausted"--she's a gem). I take naps during lunch sometimes. But I am so-so-so grateful that we don't have to bike everywhere. Can you imagine? At our departure devotional at the MTC, the speaker told about her mission in one of the north missions in Japan and how they had to bike everywhere in several feet of snow. We're the lucky ones I guess! (But I'm sure some people wouldn't think getting sent to Russia is lucky, but I sure do! :) )  

Our meeting with our investigator was a little stressful to prepare for. We had a goal of one member-present lesson, but everyone we called was just really busy that day or would cancel on us. We prayed about it and felt like we shouldn't worry anymore about trying to get a member (an hour before the lesson started). When we got to the church, there happened to be a member there who was more than happy to sit in on the lesson with us! It was amazing and a huge answer to several prayers. Having members at lessons is a fantabulous idea because: 1) they speak Russian fluently (of course) so they understand more clearly than we do and, 2) they've been in the investigator's place before so they can relate really well. I love the members here.

I really feel the Spirit when we teach lessons here. I feel the Spirit when we teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel the Spirit when we teach about the Plan of Salvation. I feel the Spirit when we teach about Joseph Smith being called of God. I know all of these are true because it's testified to me again and again. I love how being here on a mission has strengthened these basic aspects of my testimony so much. Can you believe that I've only been gone four months? It seems just yesterday that I was dropped off at the MTC on that day in June. This growing up business is pretty strange, but I know that after my time spent in the service of the Lord, I don't think I'll ever be the same again. Being here is hard sometimes, especially as I think about my family and how much I really do love you all. You have all taught my lessons that have shaped me into who I am today. And who I am today is a missionary. Isn't that cool? You've helped shape me into a missionary. And now I'm here (in Russia!) helping other people come unto Christ, and it's all because of you. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week!

As always, love,
(from your very favorite)
Sister Brown

Pictures!

Well hey!

I can't believe another week has flown by since my last p-day. Time here flies by so quickly. The weather here is getting chillier everyday, and lemme tell you-- everyone here has cranked out the fur. The snow hasn't even begun to fly, but everyone is....dressed like your stereotypical Russian, I guess you could say. I'm excited to see how everyone dresses when it's -40. Sister Galli says everyone looks like marshmallows (still haven't gotten around to buying me a puffy coat yet, but any day now).

Dad, I'm so grateful you bought me those reusable handwarmers! They're been immensely useful already. I'm excited to use them for when it's super-duper cold!

The Sister leaders came this week to do splits this week, and I went with Sister Robbins. She's a really great girl, and she's actually from Orem! Right by Cascade. (Her dad is a doctor, so if dad knows him, tell him hi!)Anyway, we had a lot of fun. It's always a little stressful to do splits because I actually have to know my way around our area instead of always relying on Sister Galli and her awesome navigation skills. Sister Robbins and I got turned around a little bit (I had never been in that area at dark before), but we were able to have a lesson with a potential investigator that Sister Galli and I had taught a first lesson to a while ago. We've tried to get ahold of her, but she's always busy. Sister Robbins and I stopped by, and she was there! We taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon and why it's important to read everyday and committed her to read every day. We said "one verse is better than none" so she agreed.

Basically, the miracle this week has been our investigator Alice. Her name is a strange Russian/Bashkirian name). She's AMAZING. Her friend has been sick and in the hospital (apparently everyone goes to the hospital whenever they're sick here, so I don't know how serious it is), but the first girl has been dutifully meeting with us. She absolutely loves the Book of Mormon. She said "when I read it, I feel like it's written for me. Like, I can really apply what I read to my life." She does every  reading assignment and comes with questions. She bookmarks every other scripture reference we make during lessons. We taught her the plan of salvation yesterday, and I think we kind of blew her mind, but she agreed to pray about it. It's hard to hear all of that the first time, I would imagine. It's a strange concept, but hey! It's true, so pray about it. :) We're hoping that as she continues to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, she'll agree to get baptized for a set date. She said when she reads she feels like she's finding out truth. She even brought one of her friends to a lesson with us who is now one of our new investigators.

After prayerfully setting goals last week for this week, we did our very best this week to accomplish every goal. We planned on one new investigator, and (seemingly) out of nowhere we got one. Our zone has really been focusing on member present lessons, but this week was a tricky one. We got the correct number of lessons for investigators by Sunday, but the numbers for member present and other were switched. But for the most part, we accomplished our goals. We had plans every day on how to add to our key indicators. We had enough lessons planned to accomplish everything, but as humans are, things fell through. But I felt really blessed because even though every goal wasn't 100% completed, we still had an amazing week with all of our investigators. 

I'm just so extremely blessed to have been born into the Gospel. It's so interesting to see the people here who have never had it. As we teach people more and more, it's so easy to see an increasing light grow within them. I've never experienced anything like this before where you can physically see the Gospel improving someone's life. And the people who have chosen to go inactive (there are a lot of those here too)? Well, it's interesting seeing how truly sad their lives are. They have sinned against the greater light they had, and that's just really sad. It's sometimes hard to be a member of the church, but it's always been worth it to me. This church is true, and if you follow its teachings and principles EXACTLY, then you'll be happy. The happiness that the church gives us isn't the happiness that the world gives us. It's so much better and so much more worth it. I truly feel like my testimony has grown leaps and bounds since coming on my mission. My whole life before my mission was insignificant because all the work I'm helping with here is life-changing. I'm truly helping change people's lives, and I'm so grateful to have been blessed with this opportunity. The church is true, the book is blue, see you in two (minus 8 months).

Love always,
Sister Brown
cecmpa Brown
cectpa Brown
                      Catie Brown :)

p.s. after the fast Sunday for October, only 14 more left until I'm back. Isn't that strange? It makes me feel like there's not time at all here. So much to do, so little time!